COLONIE — One of the largest investors in Plug Power, the Latham fuel cell manufacturer, is angry at the company and wants to replace its board of directors following a $2.8 million stock sale.

Hans Black, who manages a large investment fund headquartered in Montreal, said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Feb. 21 — a week after the shares went on the market — he was "appalled" by recent actions of Plug Power's board of directors, which he said he viewed "as a clear and uncalled for destruction of shareholder value."

Black did not specifically refer to the stock sale, which also included warrants, but many other shareholders were upset about the sale because it diluted their shares, making them less valuable.

Black and his company, Interinvest Corp., have been shareholders of Plug Power's stock for several years now.

During December, Black's company sold off hundreds of thousands of shares. But on Feb. 14 and 15, after the new shares hit the market, it purchased more than 6 million shares at a cost of roughly $850,000.

Large shareholders of public companies have to file documents with the SEC when they buy or sell large chunks of company stock. Black says he now owns more than 15 percent of the company, up from his 8 percent ownership stake as of last fall.

A call made to Black, who was out of the office, was not immediately returned.

Plug Power's general counsel, Gerard Conway Jr., could not immediately be reached for comment.

Plug Power has been experiencing financial problems for several months, and right before Christmas the company laid off 22 people from its facility on Albany Shaker Road. The company, which sells fuel cells used in forklift trucks, has had supply issues that have hurt its revenue stream, and even with the $2.4 million it was expected to get from the stock sale after paying its bankers, the company has said it only has enough money to fund its operations through May.

The company has also been warning investors in filings with the SEC that its CEO Andy Marsh may have violated securities laws when he talked about the company's future prospects in articles published last month in the Business Review. In general, SEC rules limit what executives can say about a company in the run-up to a stock sale, considered to be a "silent period" by regulators. Plug Power included in its Feb. 14 prospectus for the new shares that it could potentially face claims by shareholders wanting to cancel their purchases. Plug Power says that although such claims are only a "remote" possibility, they could end up costing the company millions of dollars.